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far 



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Class F tv 

Book rP3G( o 



liut the poet's memory here 

Of the landscape makes a part : 

Like the river, swift and clear, 

Flows his song through many a heart." 




ANNE LONGFELLOW PIERCE, 

1810-1901. 
THE DONOR OF THE HOUSE. 



THE 

WADSWORTH - LONGFELLOW 

HOUSE 



Longfellow's Old Home 

PORTLAND, MAINE 



ITS HISTORY AND ITS OCCUPANTS 

BY 
NATHAN GOOLD 




PUBLISHED BY 

THE MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY 

1905 







L-iBRARYof OOWaKtsS 
Two Copies rttx;uivt>u 

AUG 16 1305 

^ Couyngiu tnifi 

/ /9 sT^ 

COPV B. 



Copyrighted 1905, 
Bv Xathax Goold. 






Sold (inly at tlie Wadsuortli-Loiis^lellow House. 
Printed at Tlie Lakeside Press. 



l^S^m-^rS^^W^E^^T^. 






^^^^^1 

....v.^,.;-.-* -f/- « 







Photo by C. H. Brown. 

The Old Wadsworth-Longfellow House 

and Its Occupants. 

'. WV ,«av buiia more splendid habitations, 

ill „„r n.„n,s with paintinss a"d with sculptures,^^ 
>'..-veca„,,o.b..'.i...."'a.'»_old^ss.c,at,on.^^^ 

,,„ u .„swout,.-LoNtu.-EL,.ow IlofSf. «>... into the 

,„.„...-io„ „f the Maine Historical Socety in June, l.ttJ , 

. donation ffon. Anne Longfellow ^ «-- ^ >;7;;f: 

,i,,e>- ot Henry W. Lont^tellotv, whose honte t lad hoe, 

..^, n ,no,e thnn^ighty-seven years, I. was the itotne 

her parents and ,r Iparents d is to ''c incsorve as -^^^^^^ ^ 

-"^'>- "••"- " 7 ;; ;:i;;i::;r:;i:ti'::h^;on,in;.a„d the 

U.tver iiont rooms sh 1 M^ *- ^ .„ ^„^ ,,,„,, f„, the 

Soeiety was re.|Uired t,. e.uistitiet ■"<"'> „|,i„l ' ,hall he their home 
aceotnntodation ot their lihrary and eah.net, wh.di 




for :it least lialf a conlury. It is now the intention to devote the whole 
house to the honor of these distinouished families, and for the pleasure 
and profit of visitors. 

Anne Longfellow Pierce was born in this house March 3, 1810, 
married to George W. Pierce here in 1832, and where she died January 24, 
1901, at the great age of ninety years, ten months, after a life of simplicity 
and usefulness, having the spirit which made this memorial a realization. 




1807-1882. 

She had no children. ]Mr. Pierce was the classmate of her older brothers, 
and studied law in this house with her father. Twenty years after his death 
the Poet Longfellow wrote of him : "I have never ceased to feel that in 
his death something was taken from my own life which could never be 
restored. I have constantly in my memory his beautiful and manly character, 
frank, genei'ous, impetuous, gentle; by turns joyous and sad, mirthful and 







GENERAL PELEQ WADSWORTH, 

1748-1829. 



ELIZABETH BARTLETT, HIS WIFE, 

1753-1825. 



serious; elevated by the consciousness of power, depressed by he m .- 
.ivincs of self-distrust, but always kind, always courteous ; and above a 1 
^oble in thought, word and deed." In the "Footsteps of Angels, he said 

°^ ^"^ ■"" . ^ He, the young and strong, who cherished 

' Noble longings for the strife. 
By the roadside fell and perished, ^^ 
Weary with the march of life." 

He died November 15, 1836, aged nearly thirty years, after a married life 
of less than three years. 

The house was built in the years 
1785 and 178(), and was at first of 
Init two stories with a pitched roof. 
It was two years in building because 
it was the first attempt in town to 
build a house whose four walls should 
be of brick. The bricks came from 
Philadelphia, and the walls are six- 
teen inches thick. The first year 
only enough bricks were l)rought to 
Imild the^ first story. The third 
story was added in 1815, after a fire 
in the roof the year before. 

General Peleg Wadsworth was the 
builder. He was the father of the 
poet's mother, who was born in Dux- 
bury, Mass., in 1778, and came here 
to li've when she was about eight hon. Stephen longfellow, 

^^ 1776-1849. 




years of age. He was a native of l)uxl)ury, a graduate of Ilaivard College 
and had been a major-general in the army of the Revolution, where he 
rendered distinguished service. He bought the land in 1784 and built a 
store and barn that year. The house was begun the next year. He served 
his district in Congress fourteen years and declined a re-election. He 
removed to Hiram, INIaine, founded that town, became its patriarch, and 
where he lies buried on his estate. He brought here six children. The 
first-born, Alexander Scammel, died inside the American lines, at Dor- 
chester Heights, in 111'). The children who came here were Charles Lee. 




Copyriglit I'.tOl, by Lamson Studio 



THE FRONT HALL. 



Zilpah, Elizabeth, John, Lucia and Henr3\ Those l)orn in this house were 
George, Alexander Scammel, Samuel Bartlett and Peleg. Elizabeth had 
obtained a lock of Washington's hair, at the time of his death, through her 
father, which she bequeathed to the people of Maine, at the time of her 
death, in 1802, then but twenty-two, which, with the correspondence and 
her will, is among the i)recious possessions of the Maine Historical Society. 
Lieutenant Henry Wadsworth was born while the house was being built 
and from its door went to Tripoli with Commodore Preble, in the old 

8 



(constitution, where he vohmtarily 
sacriticed his life in the fireship 
Intrepid, in 1804, at the early age 
of nineteen years. In this house 
Alexander Scamniel Wadsworth was 
born, in 1790, who was at Tripoli, 
on the same frigate, and distinguished 
himself, as a lieutenant, on that his- 
toric vessel in the retreat of sixty- 
four hours from Broke's British 
s(juadron and in the famous battle, 
in the open sea, with the Gueriere, 
in 1812, when he was next in com- 
mand to Cai^tain Hull during nearly 
the whole engagement. This was the 
tirst British frigate to strike her flag 
to an American. He became a com- 
modore and died in Washington, 
D.C., in 1851. His uniform, chapeau 
and sword are on exhilution. 

General Wadsworth's a})pearance, 
at the time of the building of this 
house, was given by his daughter, 
Zilpah, as follows: — "Imagine to 
yourself a man of middle age, well 
proportioned, with a military air, and 
Avho carried himself so trul}^ that 
many thought him tall. His dress, a 
bright scarlet coat, buff small clothes 
and vest, full rutHed bosom, rutHes 
over the hands, white stockings, shoes 
with silver buckles, white cravat bow 
in front, hair well powdered and 
tied l)ehind in a clul), so-called." 
Stephen Longfellow was married, 
in this house, to Zilpah Wadsworth, 
January 1, 1804. This had been her home from childhood. Asa young 
lady, she was fond of dress and society, but in her later life was noted for 
her piety, patience, cheerfulness and tine manners, and held a high position 
in the society of the town by her intelligence and worth. On the broad 
stone stoop of this house, at twenty, she presented a banner, from the young 
ladies of Portland to the first uniformed militia company in Maine, "The 




Copyright 1902, by Lamson Studio. 

THE GARDEN DOOR. 

SHOWING THE "RAINY DAY VINE. 



Federal Volunteers," in 171)8. The Poet Longfellow's parents first lived 
here, but soon commenced housekeeping in the hip-roofed house, now stand- 
ing, on the corner of Congress and Temple Streets, where their first child, 
Stephen, was born, in 1805. It was from that house that they removed to 
the father's sister Abigail's home, at the corner of Hancock and Fore 
Streets. Capt. Samuel Stephenson, the sister's husband, was obliged to go 
to the West Indies on business and they were there staying with his wife, 
durinir his absence, when Henry W. Longfellow was born, Fe])ruary 27, 




Copyriglit r.»04, ))y Lamson Studio. 



THE PARLOK. 



1807. That never was a Longfellow house and the uncle onl}' occu})icd it 
about three years. The first record of his birth is on the bill of the family 
physician. Dr. Shirley Erving, where can be seen this charge : — 

"1807, Feby., for attendg on Mrs. L., . . . $5.00." 

Longfellow was named for his mother's brother, Lieut. Henry Wads- 
worth, and at the age of about eight months his parents came l)ack to the 
old home, where they ever afterward lived. General Wadsworth's family 
had removed to Hiram, Maine, late in 180(i, but he owned the house until 
his death in 1829, at the age of eighty-one, when it was be(iueathed to ]\Irs. 

10 



Longfellow and her sister, Lucia Wadsvvorth. ]Miss Wadsworth lived here 
until her death, in 1864, at the age of eighty-one years. She is spoken of 
as the second mother to the children and was a most estimable woman. 

In the Wads worth-Longfellow House six of the Lonsfellow children 
were born and from its door five were buried. Two daughters were 
married here. Stephen, the first child, was a lawyer and civil engineer, 
was married and had children, dying in LS50, aged forty-iive years, 
esteemed by those who knew him. Henry W. was the next child. Eliza- 




Copyright 190'2, bv Lamson Studio. 

THE "DEN" OR THE OLD DINING ROOM. 
"the rainy day desk." 

beth Wadsworth came next. She was a talented girl, who died in 1829, 
at twenty. The next was Anne, Mrs. Pierce. Then came Alexander 
Wadsworth, who married and had live children. He died in Portland, in 

1901, at the age of eighty-six years, was a civil engineer and engaged in 
the United States Coast Survey and was a man who was an honored citizen 
and an esteemed gentleman. Mary, the sixth child, was born here in 181(5, 
married, in 1839, James Greenleaf, and she died in Cambridge, Mass., in 

1902, aged eighty-six years. She presented over twelve hundred volumes 
as a foundation of what has since become "The Greenleaf I^w Library," 

11 




Copyriglit 1002, by Laiuson Studio. 



BACK OF THE LIVING ROOM. 



in Portland, after the tire of 18(i(). She was a l)enefactor of several nnder- 
takino-s and is the largest contrilmtor to the fund for the preservation of her 
birthplace, to this time. She had no children. Kllen, the next, died in 
1834, at sixteen. The youngest was Samuel, horn in 1S19, a graduate of 
Harvard College, a Unitarian clergyman and the author of many hymns. 
He was loved and esteemed, never married, and died in Portland, in 1892, 
aged seventy-three years. A Longfellow family ditty was : — 

"Stephen and Henry 
EIiz"beth and Anne 



Ale.x. and Mary 
Ellen and Sam." 

AVilliam Willis, the historian, said of Hon. Stephen I.ongleUow : — 
"No man more surely gained the contidence of all who apjMoaehed him or 
held it firmer: and those who knew him best loved him most." 

Mr. Longfellow was the son of ,Judge Stei)hen Longfellow, of Gorham, 
Maine, the grandson of Stephen Longfellow, the first schoolmaster of Port- 
land, who was also the son of Stephen. The poet's father, graduated at 

12 




Copyriglit r.W2, by Lamson Studio 



FRONT OF THE LIVING ROOM. 

,H.)\VING THE PUKT'S FAVOKITK CHAIR AND 



H.uv.nl CUese in 1798, was a Select.uan, Judge ,.£ .h« C,n,r of Conn m 
pi ripresentative t„ the Gene... Court, State ««-^t;- »"' ^^'^t 
tive to Const-ess i,t 1823-5. He died in this house ,n 1849, aged se^entJ 
thvee yeat-si-andhis wife in 18.51, at ^^^^'^^^ ._,.,„ „, „,„„,,, 

The noet wrote in his journal, Maicli iz, looi. 
.hot-e I 1 took leave of he' lay tny tnothef, to welco.ne and taUe leave o 
■» T s.it -ill th-it nio-ht alone with hei-,- without ten-or, almost 
r^arrow! r fil ^ .>een l.,. death. A sense of pea. can. 
over n,e as if there had been no shock or ,ar ,n nature, hut ,. h.un,on„u,._ 

''""'X:^!nt front roont over the parlor atrd the father and Mrs. 
Piere- in the front room over the living or sitting room. 

H myW. Lon.fellow lived here during his childhood, ''"vhood -d 
vounl marhood, and here he ean.e, to his old hontc, to t e end o ,s e 
HeTe''were the scenes of his bringing up and here he prohted by the e.^a>n- 
ple a d prtils of his honored parents. Here he wrote his tirst poem «,d 

;:.: gether with portions of his prose works. It was real y h,s 
until the IHtrchase of the "Craigie House," at Catnhrnlge, .n 184.., a pe.tod 

13 



of thirty-live years. The home remained with the old furnishings undis- 
turl)ed until the death of Mrs. Pierce. Longfellow's last visit here was in 
July, 1881, when he wrote to a friend in Rhode Island : — 

"Portland has lost none of its charms. The weather is superb and the 
air equal to that of Newport or East Greenwich or any other Rhode Island 
seashore. I shall remain here a week or two longer, and think of running 
up to North Conway and to Sebago, to see the winding Songo once more. 
It is very pleasant sitting here and dictating letters. It is like thinking 
what one will say without taking the troul)le of writing it. I have discov- 
ered a new pleasure." 

The poems now known to have been written in this house are : — 

The Battle of Lovell's Pond, 1820. 

Musings, 1825. 

The Spirit of Poetry, 1825. 

Burial of Minnisink, 1825. 

Song : When from the eye of day, 1820. 

Song of the Birds, 182(5.' 

The Lighthouse. 

The Rainy Day, 1841. 

Changed, 1858. 
And probably others. A portion of Hyperion was written here and, no 
doubt, nuich was outlined in this house while staying here. 

In 1<S24, while in college, he wrote a poem protesting against the 
removal of the old, wooden First Parish Meeting House, which was taken 
down and the present stone church built in 1825. In 1859 Longfellow 
presented to the Portland Natural History Society a portrait of Humboldt, 
from life. He gave two hundred dollars to the sufferers from the great 
Portland tire of July 4, 180(5. July 1st he wa-ote a friend: "I have left 
the little girls in Portland, where I passed a day or two with them ; and 
among other things had a sail down Casco Bay through the wooded islands 
and wished you were there." Later in the month he wrote this friend : " I 
have been in Portland since the tire. Desolation, desolation, desolation ! 
It reminds me of Pompeii, 'that sepult city.' The old family house was 
not l)urned, the track of the tire passing just below it." 

Of the childhood of the Poet Longfellow some little has been preserved. 
Aljout the time he was l)r()uglit to this house, in October, 1807, the mother 
wrote: "I think you would like my little Henry W. He is an active 
rogue and wishes for nothing so much as singing and dancing. He would 
be very happy to have you raise him up to see the balls on the mirror." 

In January, 1814, wdien he was hardly seven, he sent this message to 
his father, then in the General Court at Boston: "Oh, tell })apa I am 
writing at school a, b, c ; and send my love to him and I hope he will 
bring me a drum." 

14 



Thiit month he wrote his tirst letter. He siiid : — 

"Dear Papa: — Ann [Mrs. Pierce, then four] wants a little Bible like 
little Betsey's [her sister]. AVill you please buy her one, if you can find 
any in Boston. I have been to school all the week and got only seven 
marks. I shall have a l)illet on :\Ionday. I wish you to buy me a drum." 

"Henry W. Longfellow." 




Copyright 1D02, by Lamson StuJio. 



THE OLD KITCHEN. 



His first school was, at three, where he went with his brother Stephen, 
to one on Spring Street, above High, kept by "Ma'am Fellows," then to a 
public school on Center Street for a very short time, then to Mr. Wright's 
private school, afterward to ISIr. Carter, with whom he went to the Portland 
Academy, where he also came under Mr. Cushman. 

At "the age of six, in 1813, his schoolmaster, N. H. Carter, wrote the 
following billet to his parents : "Master Henry Longfellow is one of the 
best boy^ we have in school. He spells and reads very well. He also can 
add and multiply numbers. His conduct last quarter was very correct and 
amiable." 

In his eleventh year INIaster Bezaleel Cushman wrote his father, the 
original being now in the house : " Stephen and Henry have both com- 

15 



menced this quarter with an unusual degree of diligence in their studies. 
Their deportment is remarkably good."" 

Nehcmiah Cleveland wrote of him during his boyhood : " jSIost dis- 
tinctly do I recall the l)right, pleasant boy as I often saw him at his father's 
house, while I was living in Portland in the years 181(>-17. ]My recollec- 
tions of those interviews in that time-honored mansion and the excellent 
man whose reception of me was ever cordial and whose conversation was to 
me so ao-reeable and so instructive have never ceased to be a pleasure." 

liev. Elijah Kellogg wrote of the boy: "He was a very handsome 
boy. Retirinu- without being reserved, there Avas a frankness about him 
that won vou at once. He looked you square in the face. His eyes were 
full of expression and it seemed as 
though you could look down into 
them as in a clear spring. He had 
no relish for rude sports ; but loved 
to bathe in a little creek on the bor- 
der of Deering's Oaks ; and would 
tramp through the woods at times 
with a gun, but this was through the 
influence of others ; he loved much 
bc^lter to lie under a tree and read."" 

His brother Sanuiel described 
him as a " lively boy with brown or 
chestnut hair, blue eyes, a delicate 
com})lexi()n and rosy cheeks ; sensi- 
tive, impressionable; active, eager, 
impetuous, often imi)atient ; quick- 
tempered, but as quickly appeased , 
kind-hearted and affectionate — the 
sunlight of the house. He had great 
neatness and love of order. He 
was always extremely conscientious, 
'remarkably solicitous always to do right,' his mother wrote; 'True, high- 
minded and no])le — never a mean thought or act,' said a sister ; 'injustice 
in any slia})e he could not brook.' He was industrious, ])rompt and 
l)ersevcring ; full of ardor, he went into everything he undertook with 
great zest." 

The ))()et"s early holidays were often spent at his grandfather's at 
Gorham, Maine, his father's birthplace, where he had the companionship of 
his cousin. Sometimes in vacations he visited his (xrandfather Wadsworth, 
at Hiram, where he heard the stories of the Revolution and of the events in 
the foundinu- of that town. Here he learned of the battle of Lovell's Pond 




Coi)yriglit 1902, by Lamson Studio. 

THE KITCHEN DRESSER. 



in Fryclmi'ir, a neiohborinii' town, and it was the sul)jcct of liis lir.st i)ul)- 
lished poem, in 1820, then Imt thirteen. 

Henry \V. Lonofellow, with his brother Stephen, entered Bowdoin 
CoUeo-e in 1821 and was then in his tifteenth year. The stndies of the first 
year were jnirsued at home. Their three years' term and l)oard l)ills have 
been preserved and are on exhibition in the house. Their ehiss is said to 
have l)een the most famous of any that has ever gnuUuited from any eollege 
in America. It Avas the celebrated class of 182.1. 

In 1824, while the poet was in college, his father wrote him in one of 
his letters : ''My ambition has never l)een to accumulate wealth for my 
children, but to cultivate their minds in the best possil)le manner and to 
imbue them with correct moral, political and religious principles, believing 
that a person thus educated will, with proper diligence, be certain of attain- 
ing all the wealth which is necessary to happiness." 

The Poet Longfellow remained here with his parents during the fall 
and winter after his graduation from Bowdoin C'ollege, studying law in his 
father's office, which was then in this house. In May, 182G, he started on 
his first voyage to Europe in a sailing vessel, the passage occupying thirty 
days. He remained abroad over three years. In one of his letters he said : 
"Traveling has its joys for him whose heart can whirl away in the sweep of 
life and the eddies of the world, like a bul)I)le catching a thousand different 
hues from the sun : but happier is he whose heart rides quietly at anchor ni 
the peaceful haven of home." 

On his return, in 1829, Longfellow was elected the Professor of 
]^Iodern Lanouaoes and the Librarian ot Bowdoin College. He was then 
twenty-two. He then took up his work at Brunswick for which he had 
been fitting himself. 

It was in 18;U that he married Mary Storer Potter, a daughter of 
Jud^e Barrett Potter, of Portland, wdio resided in the house now standing, 
No. 74'Frce Street, where they were married. She was 

" The being beauteous, 
Who unto my youth was gi\en, 
More than all things else to love me." 

They resided in Brunswick until his resignation of his position in the Col- 
leire, in the spring of 18;3'5, wdien they both went abroad, he for further 
stmly. She died in Rotterdam the next November, at the age of twenty- 
three years. In December, 183(), he returned to America and became the 
Professor of Modern Languages at Harvard College, for which he had been 
preparing himself. His second mairiage was to Frances Elizabeth Apple- 
ton, of Boston, in bS4;'., when the "(^raigie House"' became their home. 
They had six children. She was burned to death in 18(U, at the age of 

17 




Copyriglit 1902, bj- Laiiison Mii.ho. 

THE (tCEST ROO.M. WITH THE FAMH.Y CRADLE. 



forty-three years. Henry W. Longfellow died iit liis home at Cainbi'idge, 
]\I:ireh 24, IHS'2, aged seventy-tive years, mourned by the world. 

The AVadsworth-Longfellow House, hallowed by its associations, no 
doubt contains the best collection of the belongings of an author's families 
on exhibition in the world. On the walls of the old dinino; room bans: 
the original manuscripts of the addresses of General Lafayette and Hon. 
Stephen Longfellow delivered in Portland in 1S2"). There are many posses- 
sions of the AVadsworth family which are of much interest ; besides manu- 
scripts and household utensils, here are shown the cocked hat and canteen 
worn by General AVadsworth during the Revolutionary AVar, also the orig- 
inal deed of this land. There are too many articles to enumerate. Of the 
poet's life are shown the ])hysician's bill at his birth, his baby cap and shirt, 
cradle, schoolbooks, term and board bills at college, his early sleeping room, 
his trunk of 182() and the original banker's statements of his expenses on 
his lirsl visit to Europe, 182(5-29, together with many other articles and 
documents connected with his life. Portraits of the different members of 
the families are on exhil)ition, several not to be seen elsewhere. The cos- 
tumes of the mother, her sisters and her dauohters, some a century or more 



old, are exhil)ited. The extent of the exhibition of the l)eh)ngings of tlie 
Wadsworth and Longfellow families seems almost incredible. It is a sur- 
prise that they have been so well preserved. 

It can be said of these families that at no time since the breaking out 
of the Revolution to this time, but that some member or members have 
been conspicuous in their State's history. 

The old house has sixteen rooms. It was the home of the Wadsworth 
and Longfellow families for one hundred and tifteen years and is in a good 
state of preservation. It has no 

" Weather-stains upon the wall, 

And stairways worn, and crazy doors, 

And creaking and uneven floors." 
It was 

" Built in the old Colonial day. 

When men lived in a grander way, 

With ampler hospitality." 

It has eight open fireplaces, and in former times, during a year, over thirty 
cords of wood were Ijurned in them. What a tale of l)ygone days they 

could tell : 

" By the fireside there are old men seated. 
Seeing ruined cities in the ashes. 

Asking sadly 
Of the Past what it can ne'er restore them. 

" By the fireside there are youthful dreamers. 
Building castles fair, with stately stairways. 

Asking blindly 
Of the Future what it cannot give them. 

" By the fireside tragedies are acted 
, In whose scenes appear two actors only. 

Wife and husband, 
And above them God the sole spectator. 

" By the fireside there are peace and comfort, 
Wives and children with fair, thoughtful faces. 

Waiting, watching 
For a well-known footstep in the passage. ' ' 

The spacious hallway, Avith its easy staircase, runs through the house 
and is a good example of the comfortable architecture of former days. 

The parlor was the largest in Portland when built and contained the 
lirst piano in town. The piano now there was the one purchased by Henry 
W. Longfellow for the "Craigie House" at the time of his marriage in 
1848. It was used by his family many years. This room was the scene 
of the festivities, the weddings and the funerals of these families during 
the scores of years of their occupancy of the house. 

The living or sitting room has the same general appearance as when 
occupied by them. For about ten years it was used by the father for a law 

19 




Copyright VM-i, by Lamsoii Studio. 

THE POET'S SLEEPING ROOM 

office, and the poet, his brother Stephen, (leoroe W. Pierce and others 
studied hiw here. The vestibule or "Little Room " was added as an addition 
or entrance to the law office. His brother wrote of Longfellow : "In this 
room the young graduate scribbled many a sheet." After the removal of 
the office, al)out 1828, this room was changed into a china closet and the 
poet wrote his sister Elizabeth, from Gottingen, under date of March 29, 
182!» : "My poetic career is finished. Since I left America I have hardly 
put two lines together; .... and no soft poetic ray has irradiated my 
heart since the Goths and Vandals crossed the RuI)icon of the front entry 
and turned the sanctum mnc(ontm of the 'Little Room,' into a china closet." 

Back of the living room is the kitchen with its broad tireplace, in 
which is the old iron back, on which is the fish "that forever bakes in 
efligy." This tire})lace has never been closed, and the utensils and china 
seen here were used by these families in the poet's time and before. This 
room, being as of old, is one of the most interesting in the house. It tells 
its own story. 

On the opposite side of the front hall is the "Den" or the old dining 
room, made especially famous l)y the fact that here, between the windows, 

20 



looking out into the oanleii, on the same desk now standing there, was 
written "The Rainy Day" in 1841. From these windows the poet saw the 
tlowering grapevine mentioned in the third line, 

"The \ine still clings {o the mouldering wall," 

which is living and is still to be seen th'.-re. The furniture on the tirst floor 
of the house, on exhibition, was theirs and was used by the family. 

The second story has four rooms, the "Mother's Room," the "Guest's 
Room," the "Children's Room" and Mrs. Pierce's old room. They contain 
a wonderful collection of the families' belongings for the inspection of the 
visitors interested. 

The third story, added in IS 15, is reached by a well-worn stairway of 
especial interest from the fact that over these stairs climbed the Longfellow 
children to their bedchambers where they were under the immediate charge 
of their aunt, Lucia \Vadsworth. This floor has seven rooms. The room 

of rooms is the poet's boyhood one, 
in which he wrote " Musings " and 
"The Lighthouse." It is furnished 
with many of the articles of yore. 
"The Boys' Room," which, at times, 

- — ^.. ____^ has been occupied by all the Long- 

^ fellow boys, looks out on the garden 
^^000^ ^H^Hr f '^'^^^ ^^^^' ^'Gstern sky. It contains the 

^^^g^n^*"^ ^^^^^^^^^jjgqpli-^r^'' I I old trundle-bed and the writings of 
■j^^^^^^ ' I ^ 11 the children on the casing of the 

'^^^HH ' window, with many articles of much 

' '^'^^fl '^'''^ interest. The remaining rooms on 

this floor are used for exhibition 
copjiight 1902, by Lainson studio. purposcs. From the frout wiudows, 

in those days, could be seen the har- 
bor, its islands, and Cape Elizabeth ; 
from those in the rear. Back Cove, the fields and forests, back of which 
loomed up the White Mountains. It was a magnificent prospect. Long- 
fellow wrote : — 

" Happy he whom neither wealth or fashion, 
Nor the march of the encroaching city, 

Drives an exile 
From the hearth of his ancestral homestead." 

On the window casing in the "Boys' Room" one of the children has 
inscribed, "How dear is the home of my childhood." The poet expressed 
his sentiments of the love of the old home in words that will never l)e stricken 
from our language : — 

"Truly the love of home is interwoven with all that is pure and deep 
and lasting in earthly affections. Let us wander where we may, the heart 

21 



THE BOYS' ROOM. 

THK OLD TRUXDLK-BED AND SCHOOL DESK. 




55? '^^K^ 



looks back with secret 
longings to the paternal 
roof. There the scattered 
rays of affection concen- 
trate. Time may enfeel)le 
them, distance overshadow 
them and the storms of 
life obstruct them for a 
season; but they ^viii at 
length break through the 
cloud and storm, and glow 
and burn and brighten 
a r o u n d the ]) e a c e f u 1 
threshold of home." 

The family were de- 
scendants from s e V e n 
Mayflower Pilgrims, Elder 
William Brewster and his 
wife Mary, Love Brew- 
ster, William Mullins and 
wife, Priscilla ]Mullins and 
John Alden, all through 
the Wadsworths. The 
Longfellows were Puri- rev. s ami el Longfellow, "the hymx writer " 

+ „,-.^" 1819-1892. 

tans. 

The Wadsworth-Longfellow House is the most historic house in ]\Iaine. 
It has been the home of at least eight persons who would make fame for any 
house by their meritorious services or public benefactions. It will be a 
most fitting memorial for those whose home it was, especially America's 
greatest poet, Henry W. Longfellow. It will be the Mecca of the lovers of 
his verse and the world will have no better tribute to his memory. 

The Maine Historical Society has accepted this trust and by the contri- 
butions of a generous pu])lic will bring it to a completion. This society 
was incorporated in 1822 and has a most honorable record. The poet's father 
was one of its presidents and Henry W. Longfellow was a librarian. The 
preservation of this old home is a worthy undertaking for a worthy society, 
and let success crown their efforts. Rev. Samuel Longfellow once said to 
a friend : "I hope they will leave some of the old places, for we need links 
with the past generations: there are few enouoh in America at l)est." 





THE FATHER'S OLD HOME. 

"The Longfellow Farm,'" at Goiham, Maine, was bought by the grcat- 
grandfather, Stephen Longfellow, "the sehoolmaster," in 1761, 1762 ami 
1765, in one hundred acre lots. Here he went in 1775, when the British 
burned Portland, then Falmouth. The present house was pro])ably built 
during the Revolutionary War, or soon after, and is prol)ably not the one in 
which the father was born, in 1776. That was in another location. The 
grandfather. Judge Stephen Longfellow, came into possession of the farm m 
1787, where he lived, and it was where he died in 1824. The grandmothei-. 
Patience Young, lived here until her death, in 1830. When Capt. Sanmel 
Stephenson, in" whose house the poet was l)orn, in Portland, in 1807, 
removed to Gorham, February 22, 1808, he was given a portion of the old 
farm for a home, because his wife, Al)igail, was a daughter of the Judge. 
Their house, enlarged in 18;'.0, is still standing. He died there in 1858, 
aged eighty-two years, and his wife in 186U, at ninety. The "Longfellow 
Elms,"\vhich formerly extended around the old farm by the roadside, were 
set out al>out 1785. "The Longfellow Farm" is where the Longfellow 
children vis^ited their grandparents of their name. 

Soon after Rev. Samuel Longfellow, the youngest of this distin- 
guished family, graduated from Harvard, in 1839, he made a visit to the 

23 



old farm. lie was then twenty and his hist grand) )ai-('nt had died nine years 
before. It wjis then that he wrote the following poem nnder the title, "The 
Homestead." It is one that will appeal to those who have similarly visited 
their grandparents' old home later in their lives. The plaee did not go out 
of the possession of the family until the latter part of the next year, 1840. 
The poem is reproduced here for the honor and fame of its esteemed author. 



THE HOMESTEAD. 



Home of my fathers ! once again 

I stand beneath the shade 
Of those ancestral trees where once 

A dreamy child I played. 
Those ancient elms still o'er thy roof 

Their sheltering branches spread ; 
Bnt they who loved their pleasant shade 

In heavenly places tread. 



That little bridge, the vine-clad elms 

That guarded either end, — 
Oh, with that spot how many dreams. 

How many memories blend ! 
When summer suns at morning kissed 

The dew from grass and flower, 
I've wandered there ; and lingered long 

At evening's holv hour. 



No longer at the window now 

Their friendly glance I catch, 
No longer hear, as I approach. 

The sound of lifted latch ; 
The ready hand which once threw wide 

The hospitable door, — 
I know its warm and hearty grasp 

Still answers mine no more. 



.Still, as each spring returns, those trees 

Put on their garments green ; 
And still in summer hues arrayed 

Those blooming flowers are seen ; 
And when the autumn winds come down 

To wrestle with the wood, 
The gold and crimson leaves are shed 

To float along the flood. 



The red rose by the winilow still 

Blooms brightly as of old ; 
The woodbines still around the door 

Their shining leaves unfold. 
The pale syringa scents the air 

Through the long summer hours ; 
But ah ! the old beloved hands 

No kjnger pluck their flowers. 



Thus seasons jiass, and year on year 

Follows with ceaseless pace ; 
Though all things human change or die, 

Unchanged is Nature's face. 
Yet, when these well-remembered scenes 

Before my \ision glide, 
I feel that they who made them fair 

No more are bv niv sitie. 



I wander vvlu-ri' tiie little l)n)ok 

.Still keeps its trancjuil How, 
Where blooms the crimson cardinal. 

And golden lilies glow , 
Or, crossing o'er the wooden bridge, 

I loiter on my way. 
To watch where, in the sunny depths. 

The darting minnows play. 

Gorham, 1839. 



And one there was — now distant far- 

Who shared my childish plays, 
With whom I roamed in deeper joy 

In boyhood's thoughtful days. 
Dear cousin, round thine early home 

When truant memory 
Lingers in dreams of fond regret, 

Dost thou e'er think of me? 

.Sa>uel Loxgkei. 




.^-^' V 



HENRY W. LONGFELLOAV. 

Ill 1855. 

THE WRITING OF "MY LOST YOUTH." 

In l.S4(;, while the Poet LoRofcHow was visiting his old home, he 
wrote in his journal of taking a long walk around Munjoy Hill and down 
to Fort Lawrence, Avhich was a fort of the War of 1812 at the easterly 
point of Portland, where the Grand Trunk Railway tracks are now. He 
says • "I lay down in one of the embrasures and listened to the lashing, 
luilin- sound of the sea just at my feet. It was a beautiful afternoon and 
the harl)()r was full of white sails, conung and departing, ^leditated a 
poem on the Old Fort." , 

It was not until March, 1855, that "My Lost Youth" was written. In 
his journal he said : "At night, as I lie in bed, a poem comes into my 
mind, a memory of Portland, my native town, the city by the sea. 
'Sitteth the city wherein I was born 
Upon the seashore.' " 

The next day he said : "Wrote the poem : and am rather pleased with 

it and with bringing in of the old Lapland song,— 

'A boy's will is the wind's will, 
And the thoughts of youth are Ion.;;-, long thoughts.' " 

This poem is that most cherished by the people of his native city. It is 
their heritage from him, a trilnitc from a town-born 1)oy. It is as follows : 

2.5 



MY LOST YOUTH. 

Often I tliink of tlie l)eautifnl town 

Tliat is seated by the sea ; 
Often in thought go up and down 
The pleasant streets of that dear old town. 
And my youth comes back to me. 
And a verse of a Lapland song 
Is haunting my memorv still : 
'■A boy's will is the wind's will, 
And the thoughts oi youth are long, long thoughts." 

1 can see the shadowy lines of its trees. 

And catch in sudden gleams 
The sheen of the far-siurounding seas. 
And islands that were the Hesperides 
( )f all my boyish dreams. 

And the burden of that old song, 
It murmurs and whispers still : 
"A boy's will is the wind's will. 
And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts.' 

I remember the black wharves and the slips, 

And the sea-tides tossing free ; 
And Spanish sailors with bearded lips. 
And the beauty and mystery of the ships. 
And the magic of the sea. 

And the voice of that wa\ward song 
Is singing and saying still : 
"A bov's will is the wind's will, 
And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts.' 

I remember the bulwarks by the shore,' 

And the fort upon the hill ; ' 
The sunrise gun, with its hollow- roar, 
The drum-beat repeated o'er and o'er, 
And the bugle wild and shrill. 

.And the music of that old song 
Throbs in my memory still : 
■'.\ boy's will is the wind's will. 
And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts.' 

I remember the sea-light far awax, ■ 
How it thundered o'er the tide ! 
And the dead captains, as they lay ' 
In their graves o'erlooking the tramiuil bay 
Where they in battle died. 

And the sound of that mournful song 
(>oes through me with a thrill : 
"A boy's will is the wind's will. 
And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts. 

I can see the breezy dome of groves, 

The shadows of Deering's Woods ;'' 
And the friendships old and the early loves 
Come back with a Sabbath sound, as of doves 
In (luiet neighborhoods. 

26 



And the verse of that sweet old son^, 
It flutters and murmurs still : 
"A boy's will is the wind's will, 
And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts." 

I remember the gleams and glooms that dart 

Across the schoolboy's brain ; 
The song and the silence in the heart, 
That in part are prophecies and in part 
Are longings wild and vain. 

And the voice of that fitful song 
Sings on, and is never still : 
"A boy's will is the wind's will. 
And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts." 

There are things of which I may not speak ; 

There are dreams that cannot die ; 
There are thoughts that make the strong heart weak. 
And bring a pallor to the cheek. 
And a mist before the eye. 

And the words of that fatal song 
Come over me like a chill : 
"A boy's will is the wind's will. 
And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts." 

Strange to me now are the forms I meet 

When I visit the dear old town ; 
Rut the native air is pure and sweet. 
And the trees that o'ershadow each well-known street, 
As they balance up and down, 

Are singing the beautiful song, 
Are sighing and whispering still : 
"A boy's will is the wind's will. 
And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts." 

And Deering's Woods are fresh and fair. 

And with joy that is almost pain 
My heart goes back to wander there. 
And among the dreams of the days that were 
I find my lost youth again. 

And the strange and beautiful song, 
The groves are repeating it still : 
"A boy's will is the wind's will. 
And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts." 

Henrv W. Longfellow. 

• "The bulwarks bv the shore " was Fort Lawrence. 

^"The fort upon the hill" was Fort Sumner, off North street, where "Fort Sumner 
Park" now is and south of it. He said of that fort that it " was one of the terrors of my 
childhood." 

'■' "The sea fight far away " was the battle between the Enterprise and Boxer, m 1813, 
forty miles from Portland, off Bristol, Maine. 

' "The dead captains as they lay, etc.," were Captains Burrows of the Enterprise and 
Blythe of the Boxer, both killed in the battle and buried side by side in the Eastern Cemetery. 

■"■" Deering's Woods," now Deering Park, presented by that family to the city for a 
public park, in 1879. It contains about fifty acres. 

27 



UG 16 1905. 



"CHANGED." 

November 2o, 1847, Longfellow, while in Portland, wrote in his 
journal: "After church, walked with Fessenden [William Pitt] to the 
'gallows' that used to l)e, — a Hne hillside looking down over the cove." 
This was at the corner of Congress and Vaughan Streets, at the head of 
Decring Avenue, called the "gallows" because at least two men had been 
hung there. This was the scene of "Changed," w^ritten by the poet, while 
on a visit to Portland, in 1858. 

CHANGED. 

From the outskirts of the town, 

Where of old the mile-stone stood, 
Now a stranger, looking down, 
1 behold the shadowy crown 

Of the dark and haunted wood. 

Is it changed or am I changed ? 

Ah ! the oaks are fresh and green. 
But the friends with whom I ranged 
Through their thickets are estranged 

By the years that intervene. 

Bright as ever flows the sea, 

Bright as ever shines the sun. 
But alas ! they seem to me 
Not the sun that used to be, 

Not the tides that u.sed to run. 



"The dark and haunted wood " was Deering's Woods, now Deering Park. The cove, 
spoken of in his journal, was Back Cove, now called Back Bay. 



' Honor to those whose words or deeds 
Thus help us in our daily needs. 
And by their o\erflow 
Raise us from what is low ! " 



28 



^C^i;^f5^^f*^,, F- . 



FORM OF A BEQUEST. 



1 fifive and bequeath to the Maine Historical Socioty, 

_ ^ Dollars, 

to he used for the ruaintenance of the Wadsworth-LongfelloAY 
House and the liibrarv of that Societv. 



Contributions should be sent to Fritz H. Jtirdan, 
Treiisurer of the Longfellow Memorial Fund, Portland, 
"Maine. 



THE RAINY DAY. 



The day in cold, and dark, and dreary ; 

It rains, and the wind is never weary ; 

The vine still dings to the mouldering wall, 
But at every gust the dead leaves fall, 

And the dav is dark and drear v. 



j\iy life is cold, and dark, and di-ear}' ; 

It rains, and the wind is never weary; 

My thoughts still cling to the mouldering past, 
But the hopes of youth fall thick in the blast, 

And the days are dark and dreary. 

Be still, sad heart! and cease repining; 
Behind the clouds is the sun still shining ; 

Th3'' fate is the common fate of all. 

Into each life some rain must fall, 
Some days must }>e dark and dreary. 



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